5:30AM to Midnight
by cherrymilk
Summary: For #FFXVWEEK on Tumblr! Theme: a day in the life. It's a pretty average day for Prompto - he wakes up, and falls asleep to the silence of an empty house. Except today, things are a little different.


_Bzzt_!

Prompto's eyes popped open as soon as he heard the first buzz come from his cell phone. It was 5:30AM. He briefly considered closing his eyes again, but decided against it. The rest of the house was deathly silent, as it always was.

He pushed his blue blankets off of him and jumped out of bed. He immediately felt energized and ready to face the day. Walking over to the closet, he pulled out his running clothes and threw them on. He'd have a good hour to run around the neighborhood before he had to get ready for school.

Prompto moved to the front of the house, not bothering to look into his parents' bedroom. Even if, by some miracle, they were actually at home, then they'd be asleep. In the kitchen, he set about making an omelet, tossing in whatever vegetables he had available. He sat at the table, and began to absentmindedly scroll through his phone while he ate. He briefly considered sending Noctis a good morning text, but it was probably way too early. Noctis was typically very patient with him, but he drew the line at anything that interrupted his sleep.

Just as Prompto was about to get up from the table, he spotted a small pile of Gil.

Ah.

So his parents _had_ shown up at some point. And, as usual, all he really had to show for it was a pile of Gil. Prompto shuffled through it, mentally calculating how much he could put aside for a new camera. For a moment, he felt uncharacteristically upset. He sniffed, and allowed himself some self-pity for a second before shaking it off and rushing outside of the house. The longer he stayed indoors, the more upset he'd become.

As soon as he established a comfortable speed, Prompto felt better. He cheerfully greeted every person he ran by – usually other runners, or people who enjoyed early morning walks. Some of the earlybirds knew him by now, so he would jog in place while they exchanged pleasantries. Prompto felt good when people smiled around him, so he tried his best to be as chipper as possible.

His early morning runs also had another advantage: plenty of people would walk their dogs around before work, and Prompto got to pet them _all_. If that wasn't a good reason to stay fit, he wasn't sure what was.

Prompto was a bit damp after his run, so he took a quick shower and pulled on his school uniform. He rolled the sleeves up, and pulled and tugged at certain ends to achieve the perfect disheveled look. He let out a "hmm," at his hair, which was lying flat, and made the split second decision to get it to stand up a bit. He grabbed his backpack, double checked that his camera was inside, and left the house for the second time that morning. It was now 7:30AM.

Prompto walked to school at a leisurely pace. There were multiple routes for him to take, and when he was younger, he would take the longest possible one. But now, things were different, because he had a new friend to see. While he walked, he snapped pictures of things that struck his fancy: a cat napping on a wall, blooming roses, the scattered clouds in the sky. When he got close to school, he spotted Noctis, who was leaning nonchalantly against the railing outside. Prompto took a quick picture, and bounded over to his friend.

"Hey!"

Noctis looked tired, as usual. "It's too early to be up."

"Yeah, well, you say that every morning. Look at this!"

As they walked up the stairs to the entrance, Prompto showed Noctis the picture he had taken of him.

"When did you even take that?"

"Literally just now!" Prompto regarded his camera proudly. "You look pretty cool, huh?"

"Sure, Prompt, if you say so."

Prompto grinned, and felt an incredible appreciation for Noctis. He loved having someone to show his pictures to, and he loved having someone to talk to. Sometimes, they would just spend hours talking about absolutely nothing – and Prompto _loved_ it.

At lunch, Noctis finally noticed that Prompto had something different with his hair, which usually lay flat.

"Did you…change your hair?" he asked, his fork hovering in the air.

"Oh, yeah." Prompto patted his head self-consciously and felt his freckled face grow pink. "I mean…does it look good? You gotta tell me if it looks dumb, Noct."

"Nah, it suits you." Noctis did not seem to notice how much this pleased Prompto.

In any case, Prompto decided to continue to wear his hair like that for the foreseeable future.

School went by in a blur. Prompto sometimes had a hard time focusing, but he actually did like to learn. He fancied himself a bit of a deep thinker, though he was sure his friends would die laughing if he ever called himself one. He finally left school with a backpack full of reading to do.

"Hey, Ignis!" Prompto smiled widely. Ignis would wait by the royal family's black car every day. He would hold the door open for who knows how long while waiting for Noctis.

"Prompto," Ignis greeted coolly.

Prompto sometimes felt unsure about whether or not Ignis liked him. He was never mean to him, exactly, but he was never very warm, either. Because of this, Prompto always felt out of his depth when speaking to him.

Not that that stopped him from trying.

"So, what's up?"

Noctis was standing by Prompto silently. Ignis still had his hand on the open door.

"His Highness has a self-defense lesson to get to," Ignis said shortly.

"Oh." Prompto's face colored, and he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I won't keep you! See ya, Noct!"

"See you," Noctis said, waving.

* * *

Prompto began to walk home, wondering if Noctis would ever be able to hang out with him after school, or if he'd ever be invited to the palace. While he pondered, he took pictures.

When he reached his door, he sighed. He fished his keys out and unlocked the door.

"I'm home."

He pouted immediately, upset that he couldn't kick the habit of announcing his presence. He strolled to his room, dumped his backpack on the floor, and flopped onto his bed to look through the day's pictures. He decided to develop a few of them, the one of Noctis leaning against the stairwell railing included.

He placed his camera on his chest and stared at the ceiling. The silence was crushing him. He pulled out his phone and opened up a new message.

 _Thanks for the Gil_ , he typed out. _I miss you guys_!

He stared at the screen for a minute before quickly erasing the second sentence. He sent it to both his parents and waited, feeling anxious. After fifteen minutes of radio silence, he jumped out of bed and looked at himself in the mirror.

"Tomorrow's gonna be great!" he said aloud, breaking the silence. "Tomorrow's gonna…"

He bit his lip and picked up his phone again. He wanted to text Noctis, but…

He sat at his desk, but stood up a moment later. He felt restless, and he felt annoyed.

Why did his parents have to be gone all the time? Why did he have to sit in a silent house day in and day out? Did they really think that leaving him Gil was enough? Didn't they miss him? Didn't they wonder about him? When was the last time they sat down together and had a proper conversation? Did he even know them anymore?

Did they know him?

Prompto felt uncomfortably warm. He wanted to have a good cry, but kept blinking to keep the tears away. It wasn't worth it.

 _Everybody feels lonely sometimes_ , he thought. _No problem!_

He'd become very good at talking himself out of being upset about his empty, lonely house.

Suddenly, his phone buzzed.

Prompto jumped, not used to receiving texts. Noctis wasn't much for texting, and Prompto wasn't sure if they were even at that stage in their friendship yet. He picked his phone up, suddenly filled with hope that it was one of his parents responding to his earlier text.

No such luck – actually, it was from Noctis. Prompto opened it immediately, feeling overwhelmingly curious.

It was sent a few minutes ago, at 5:04PM.

 _Hey, I got out of taking my lesson. Do you want to do something with us in an hour or so?_

Prompto almost dropped his phone in his excitement. He paused for a moment – who was 'us?' Prompto couldn't imagine Ignis doing anything that wasn't properly scheduled out…but maybe he'd show up and Prompto could finally convince him to be friends.

Prompto began typing back furiously: _Yes! Where are we going?!_

* * *

At 6:15PM, Prompto was pacing around his house. Noctis was going to come pick him up. And they were going to hang out. He finally had something to do after school that wasn't homework or running.

A knock came at the door. Prompto threw it open, his cheeks rosy with happiness.

"Noct!" he chirped. He peered behind his friend. "And Ignis! And…"

A very tall, very large looking person was with the two of them.

"And a giant!" Prompto finished.

"Gladio," Noctis corrected, as the giant laughed. "He teaches me self-defense."

"That's so cool!" Prompto stepped out and closed the door to his house behind him, leaving all the silence and sadness behind. The four of them began to walk to the familiar black car. "I'm Prompto!"

* * *

Prompto found himself in bed at midnight, unable to sleep. He was just far too happy. Every time he would close his eyes, he would remember how much he felt like he had _belonged_. As a foursome, they had eased into an easy banter, and Prompto didn't feel out of his depth for a second. He picked up his camera and looked through the pictures he had taken of his new friends, the bright light of the screen covering him.

For the first time, he wasn't thinking about how quiet the house was at all.


End file.
